System:
Lambrecht

Description:

In many respects Lambrecht was considered an ideal candidate for colonization. Abundant mineral and metal deposits, ripe for mining and refining on the surface and in the orbiting debris field from a failed moon, promised a booming industrial economy, while fertile soil, terrestrial seasons, and a biosphere suitable for human life all described a virtual paradise. The only drawback, settlers quickly learned, was that the planet was entering a stage of geological settling, stirred constantly by gravitational tides caused by its large G6-class sun.

The resulting earthquakes, common all over the world, have generally been mild, but prevented the colonists from establishing large structures or concentrated cities, a trend that continues despite advances in building materials and planetwide expertise in earthquake damage-control procedures. As a result, Lambrecht's five island continents are dotted with small to medium-sized towns, the largest of which, the planetary capital of Middle Park, boasts a population of just 967,000.

During the Star League era, Lambrecht became one of the League's most heavily fortified worlds, ironically enough, because of its chronic tremors. As home to the University of Lambrecht, one of the Star League's "Golden Ten" institutions of higher learning, and a school geared toward the hard sciences (such as physics, astronomy, and geology), the League chose Lambrecht as a test bed for a Castle Brian design using high-boron alloy, a rare building material resistant to earthquakes.

Six Castles Brian were constructed on Lambrecht by the mid-twenty-fifth century, including one that housed the Success Mint, which printed currency for the Draconis Combine. During the Amaris crisis, Lambrecht was hit pretty hard, with the Usurper's troops obliterating four of the Castles Brian, the University of Lambrecht, and the Success Mint, from orbit. Using neutron weapons on the ground to capture and secure the remaining two, Amaris' forces dug in when Kerensky's troops returned to liberate the planet. In the ensuing battle, Kerensky's troops used their own tactics against them, raining fire down from several orbiting WarShips to destroy the core of Amaris' defenders, then overwhelming the surviving troops with sheer numbers on the ground.

In the month-long fighting, the Usurper's troops, employing a scorched-earth policy, destroyed all of Lambrecht's high-boron alloy mills and several nearby towns. Even today contaminated zones still trace the sites of these major battles that heralded the fall of the Star League, and the air is tainted by toxins left over from the biochemical weapons the Amaris forces employed near the end.

The Draconis Combine claimed Lambrecht after the League's fall and immediately tried to scavenge from the remains of the ruined fortifications and university facilities left behind by Kerensky's troops. In three cases, they uncovered substantial, largely undamaged catacombs beneath the collapsed ruins of the legendary Castles Brian, all three of which - including one just fifteen kilometers south of Middle Park - are major tourist attractions today.

Aside from the large island continent of Galapagos in the northern hemisphere of this world, where Middle Park stands, Lambrecht's four other continents are Brattanios, and Falkos, in the northern hemisphere, east of Galapagos, and Phillipharos, and Shasia in the south. Shasia, dominated by tundra, is by far the least populous of these landmasses, but recent discovery of an untapped boron vein has awakened some interest in mining the metal for the possible rebirth of the high-boron industry.

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